


Burn for You

by SupportCharacter



Category: Adventure Time
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-04
Updated: 2017-02-04
Packaged: 2018-09-21 23:09:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9570938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SupportCharacter/pseuds/SupportCharacter
Summary: PB brings Finn and Jake along to the Flame Kingdom to serve as her escorts to an important ceremony. Occurs before Season 8. Criticism and pointers are much appreciated.





	

"Can't... get these dang... tails to... Argh!" Throwing up his hands in exasperation, Finn stopped tugging at the coattails on his fancy suit, something he had been doing for the past twenty minutes. 

"Jake, why do we have to wear these wack outfits? The tails keep dragging on the floor and wrapping around my legs, and the pants are super tight!"

"Calm down bro," Jake said, "we've gotta wear these things to the ceremony, it's some dumb formal biz. PB just needs us to be her "escorts" for the night, so we need to look the part. Besides, these outfits are cool, I think I look fabulous" Trying to finish with a twirl, Jake tripped on the carpet in the hallway, almost completely falling over.

Before he could laugh, Finn is cut off by a quick "shush" from PB.

"Guys, get it together. I'm not one to hang on tradition, and neither is Flame Princess, but we have to keep up appearances for our subjects. Just... try not to mess up too bad? Look straight ahead, follow a couple steps behind me, and don't say anything, okay?" The princess said, adjusting the protective crystals embedded in the two's artful necklaces.

"Sounds great, PB! We've got your back!" Jake said, trying to drown out Finn's mumbling with a flood of optimism.

"Thanks you two, I really appreciate your help with thi...." Before she can finish, PB is cut off by the massive door opening, sigils glaring in the red glow that permeates the Flame Kingdom.

Swinging open smoothly, the door reveals an enormous antechamber, filled to the brim with fire elementals. They sit in anticipation, lining the room, watching the foreign princess and her guards intently. In the center of the chamber, Flame Princess stood. She was facing slightly away from them - she must have been giving a speech before they entered.

She wore a black dress, dark as night, shot through with ruby streaks. It looked like the muted embers that remain after a long bonfire, powerful despite their dim appearance. As Finn's gaze drifted upwards, a blush rose to his cheeks. Her hair tumbled town her back in scarlet waves, a burning river. Her skin was a pale yellow, like a candle flame, and seemed smooth and soft, despite its fiery nature. The front of the dress dipped down, only enough to reveal the gleaming gem on Phoebe's chest, glittering in the light of a thousand living flames. As she turned to greet them, Finn had to hold back a gasp. Her face, framed in the glow of her people, displayed love, hope, determination, dedication. All the emotions of a confidant and mature ruler, all the things Finn found most illuminating about her soul.

"She's..." Finn caught himself before he said it out loud, but the thought rang in his head, bouncing around, desperate to get out.

_Beautiful. Beautiful. Beautiful. Beautiful...._

Finn was shocked out of his stupor by a light kick from Jake, who had noticed Finn not following behind PB when she started moving. Quick to return to reality, Finn shook his head, attempting to clear it (and almost completely failing), and fell into step behind the Candy Kingdom Princess. 

Walking forward in a daze, it took every ounce of Finn's strength to not look back up at Phoebe. The walk to the dais in the center of the room seemed endless, but when they eventually reached it, climbing up the small set of stairs, Finn took a peek at the burning girl before him.

_You're supposed to stare straight ahead, you idiot! You can't look at her, she'll notice, she'll notice, she'll notice!_

Despite the shouting in his mind, Finn's gaze slowly slid over to Phoebe. She was talking to Bubblegum, a smile on her face, saying something about "elemental harmony" and "union between two powerful kingdoms." The two princesses talked for what seemed like forever, using long, fancy, official words, putting on a show for everyone watching. Cinnamon Bun scribbled a on a sheet of paper, no doubt a transcript of the event. Candy people were more likely to trust the word of their own, that is, if they could manage to read Cinnamon Bun's handwriting.

Eventually, PB stepped forward to deliver a speech to the flame people. In stepping back and turning away so as to give PB the stage, Finn and Phoebe caught eyes. Her crimson gaze tugged at Finn's heartstrings, a painful ache forming in his chest. They both turned quickly, but the brief, imperceptible dimming of Phoebe's fiery visage betrayed her emotions to Finn as much as his flushed face and wince betrayed his. 

It wasn't long before PB stepped back, and Flame Princess took her place. A hush fell over the crowd, everyone leaning forwards to hear what the young monarch had to say.

"My people... to celebrate the coming together of our two glorious nations, tonight... we party!" 

A cheer rang out from the fire elementals, a surge of blazing light overcoming the amphitheatre. In the glow, Finn caught another glance of Phoebe's face, her body literally glowing with compassion and pride for her people. It was a moment frozen in time, lasting both an eternity and a single second. It wasn't long before Flame Princess was swept up by a crowd of her people and carried away to the party room, giggling in the cutest way, positively beaming.

_It's odd_ , Finn thought,  _how I can feel so happy and so sad at the same time._

* * *

 

The flame kingdom may be a bit... unruly, at times. It can be a little spontaneous, prone to random outbursts and explosions. You have to watch your step if you aren't a fire elemental, sure, but good glob do they know how to throw a party.

Jake was in the corner of the room, at a table surrounded by absolutely massive guardsmen and mercenaries of the flame kingdom. They each took turns chugging massive mugs of flammable chemicals, flaring up and laughing whenever one of the others melted their armour together or fell over, burned out. Jake, of course, would throw the whole mug back in one gulp, stretching a hole in the back of his throat where the liquid splashed against the floor behind him. Everyone was having too good of a time to notice.

PB sat around a large bonfire, telling scary stories to the children. To Finn, it sounded like most of them were either lab problems that PB had said she had nightmares about or monsters she herself had created. To the children, each story was a tale of dread and terror, with the heroic scientist barely able to escape the clutches of the Algebrakken, a massive sea beast which spouted math problems and shot red ink to defend itself.

Finn watched from the bar, his half-empty root beer float watching him despondently. He gave a half smile when PB started chanting square roots in german, much to the children's horror. It was a great party, everyone was having fun, it seemed, except him. His thoughts just kept wheeling back and forth, from Phoebe's smile to the way she faced her people so fearlessly and how she looked in that  _dress_ and...

"Hey there, stranger." A voice said, shattering his train of thought, startling him out of his chair.

Turning, Finn saw Phoebe sitting behind the bar, a small glass of ethanol in her hand. She had slipped out of the dress sometime during the party, and stood in a more casual outfit of a light shirt and flowing skirt. Somehow, she looked even better relaxed, comfortable. In her own element, literally  _and_ figuratively.

"Not enjoying the float? We had liquids imported especially for you and your friends..." She said it in a teasing manner, but something about the look in her eyes, the way her tone dropped ever so slightly, seemed to suggest that she was almost disappointed.

"No, no! I, uh, love it! It's a great float, really. I just have... other things on my mind."

_Idiot, idiot, idiot! What kind of thing is that to say to her? She's smart as heck, she'll realise you're talking about her! How come you have to be such a damn romantic all the time?_

"Hah, I guess you still have a lot of heroing to do these days, huh?" Phoebe said, tucking a wisp of errant hair behind her ear, casting her gaze down.

"Well... you know how monsters are...?" Finn said, trying to salvage the conversation. His mind was screaming, dying, imploding. Alarm bells were going off left and right, but all he could do was sit there in a stupor and stare at the beautiful girl in front of him, playing with the hem of her dress.

"Hey, you know what? Let's go somewhere else, I wanna show you something. The party can handle being on its own for a little while, right?" Phoebe seemed eager to get out of the suddenly stifling room. Nodding, Finn got up and motioned to the bartender to take his mug.

"Oh, never mind that," said Phoebe irritably, pushing her hand through the foam and soda, evaporating it and cleaning the cup instantly, "Lets just get out of here."

She took Finn by the hand and pulled him through corridor after corridor, up flight after flight of stairs. Her grip was tight, and the protective crystal PB had given him made her touch feel perfectly warm, like the sun on a lazy summer day. Finn smiled, looking down at the blazing girl's hand clasped tightly around his hand.

Phoebe grew visibly more excited as they continued, burning brighter and hotter with each step. By the time they reached what seemed to be the final door, she was positively gleaming. Finn had to shield his eyes before Phoebe noticed and toned herself down. Pushing lightly at the doors, the princess revealed what seemed to be her personal quarters.

Walls of dark volcanic glass and basalt formed the structure of the room, and red flame-proof carpeting and upholstery decorated the space. A large fireplace sat brooding on one side of the room, while a large window brought in glowing light from the kingdom on the other. Guiding Finn over to a couch beneath the window, she pushed him into a sitting position and sat down beside him. She was close, so close, Finn could feel her heat on his face. She stared out the window, lost in thought, and soon he was able to shift his view off of her and through the opening.

The entire Flame Kingdom was laid out below them. Like a marvellous painting, the kingdom seemed almost like a bonfire in and of itself, with glimmering embers of life below surging columns of flame.

"It's all on my shoulders now, y'know." Phoebe said. "Running a kingdom looked so much easier when my father did it, and I suppose it was when you got to make all the rules whenever you wanted. Now I run it how it should, and every day it's like I have more responsibility. I wouldn't have it any other way, but it feels like I'm losing myself sometimes. I'm glad you came today, Finn. I feel like maybe you've... reminded me of some things."

She looked up at him now, and the two locked eyes for the first time that night. Finn felt his heart beat faster, louder, and started to wonder if Flame Princess could hear it.

Seeming to take one last eyeful of him, Phoebe stood and walked over to a small cabinet of bottles, taking one out and grabbing two glasses from another shelf.

"Low-Burning Cabernet, right? I've heard that it's your favourite." Phoebe said, pouring two glasses before Finn had time to nod.

She came over with the drinks, and handed Finn a glass. It was warm to the touch, and the idea that it was so because Phoebe had been holding it made Finn's heart speed up again. They clinked glasses and both took sips of the drink.

"Cheers."

"...Cheers."

It was true - Low-Burning was his favourite drink. Enchanted vineyards in the Flame Kingdom grew a rare type of grape, one which could be, after an arduous and artful process, synthesised into a warm wine. It was rather flammable, like all things from the Flame Kingdom, but for a non-flame elemental it was also a rather quality drink. Tingling at the back of the throat and warming the body from the inside out, as well as tasting like burned marshmallows and honey, it was the perfect drink for Finn. There was an unpleasant scent of aluminium foil, for some reason, but most flame elementals couldn't smell in the first place, and it never seemed to bother Finn.

_Of course, taste and feeling is one thing, and Low-Burning does both pretty well, but I mostly like it because.._ _._

"You know," Phoebe said, derailing Finn's train of thought for another time that night, "I wasn't quite sure why you liked this drink so much. I mean, it is quite good, a respectable producer, a good taste, all that, but I figured there was something more. I started asking around, and eventually a friend of a friend heard from Jake that you would drink it late at night, far from the treehouse, camped out in the woods or in a field. That sometimes you would stare at the cup for hours on end, drinking only a little bit of the wine at a time so a single mouthful could last all night."

Phoebe rested her arm against him, leaning into Finn's frame, trying to hide her own blush by turning away.

Finn's gaze wandered around the room, jumping away every time it even crossed close to Phoebe. His obvious agitation increased with each word she spoke, but she continued.

"Now  _that_ made me suspicious. So I went down and I picked up a firkin of it for myself. I went out into a field one night, far from the flame kingdom, alone, and I stared at a glass of it all night. It took me a while, but eventually I realised..." Pausing now, Phoebe lifted her drink up so it caught the light from the window. 

"I realised that no matter how you look at it or hold it, no matter what light you shine at it... even though the colour changes, it's always a shade of my fire."

_Your fire,_ Finn thought alongside her.

In the twilight of the kingdom, the shade was of her dresses, when she shaped her form into one. Phoebe tilted the glass so that the lamplight from the room caught inside the wine. A glowing yellow suffused the room, the same shade as her skin. And, holding it up to the fire crackling in the fireplace, Phoebe saw the colour of her gem glittering back.

"Finn, do you still..."

"I'm sorry," Finn said, cutting her off. "I'm sorry, I should have let you go, I should have stopped, I shouldn't feel...  _like this_ anymore. I shouldn't, but I keep coming back to... to your old house, to our first kiss, to the pit you burned into the ground. I keep coming back to hugging you, to hearing you laugh, to our dungeon crawl together. I keep coming back to you, no matter what I do. I'm... sorry."

Finn took a large sip of his drink and placed it down beside him, bracing as if for a blow.

"Finn, do you still... do you still feel for me? Do you really still think about me? Do you still..." Phoebe said tentatively, now staring directly into the hero's eyes.

"Phoebe, I  _burn_ for you." Finn said, the words bubbling out of him like demons, tearing to get free after such a long time locked up. Finn leaned down, took her face in his hands, and brought his lips to hers. Flame Princess flared brightly, the light from her being refracting through the discarded wine glasses and painting the purest scarlet across the room. It would be a long time before the light dimmed.

 

 


End file.
